Blog - Tour Down Under 2012

It was quite sure that on the circuit in the centre of Adelaide the last Tour Down Under 2012 stage would finish in a sprint. The suspense however was for the final victory because, as you might remember, after yesterday's stage the numbers one and two of the general classification had exactly the same time!

The biggest sprint expert present in SOuth Australia, André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol), sprinted to victory in this 6th and last stage while Simon Gerrans (GreenEDGE) kept his precious leader's jersey in the general classification ...

The summary of the stage 6/ Adelaide City Council Street Circuit

The last stage of the Tour Down Under always takes place in the same, a bit special, form, with 20 laps on a 4.5 kilometer long circuit in the centre of Adelaide, the Champs-Elysées of Adelaide according to the director of the r ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 1204x

It was a promise: the 5th stage of the Tour Down Under 2012 would be the queen stage. It was a promise as well that this stage would not get a bunch sprint at the finish but would rather have a good climber as its winner.

The promises have been kept, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) showed to be the strongest on the climb of Old Willunga Hill and the general classification of the Australian race has been completely modified once again. The recent Australian Champion, Simon Gerrans, of the brand new UCI ProTeam GreenEDGE, takes the first place in this classification but shares his time with Alejandro Valverde, on the day before the final stage on a circuit in the centre of Adelaide.

A new stage, a new sprint in the Tour Down Under 2012. In 3 of the 4 stages, the Tour Down Under for now remains faithful to it's image of a sprinters race. This time it was up to the Spanish rider Oscar Freire, now part of Katusha Team, who won the stage, while the leader's jersey of the general classification again changes shoulders and goes back to the Swiss rider Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team). By getting in the right group when the peloton split up in two on the climb at 22 kilometers from the finish, he takes over the leader's jersey from André Greipel.

The third stage of the Tour Down Under 2012 between Unley and Victor Harbor ended in a sprint in the coast city and in this sprint, André Greipel took yet another stage victory. He also seized the occasion to get back the ochre leader's jersey of the general classification.

The summary of the stage 3/ Unley > Victor Harbor

As usual since the start of this Tour Down Under, immediately after the start some riders decided to go for some adventure and got in a breakaway. This time it was the turn for Eduard Vorganov (Katusha Team), Jan Bakelants (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) and Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) and a few kilometers further, these 3 leading riders were joined by Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

Already briefly in a breakaway in yesterday's stage, Will Clarke (UniSA-Australia) got in the breakaway of the day today right from the start of the stage. Finishing the stage solo, he won the stage in Stirling with an over one minute gap on last year's winner of this stage, Michael Matthews.

The Swiss rider who animated yesterday's stage, Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) takes over the lead in the general classification.

The summary of the stage 2/ Lobethal > Stirling of the Tour Down Under 2012

The weather conditions were almost completely opposite today compared to yesterday with temperatures "only" around 20°C and forecasts of rain for the end of the stage (this didn't happen however).

Since this morning, the 2012 edition of the UCI WorldTour officially started with the first stage of the Tour Down Under from Prospect to Clare and this stage was won by André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) who also won the Down Under Classic last Sunday.
A longlasting breakaway and a serious crash in the last kilometer were the most important events in this stage which was won by the gorilla.

In one week, the Tour Down Under will start in South-Australia, in Prospect to be more precise. 803 kilometers further, in Adelaide, we'll know who will be the winner of the first race of the UCI WorldTour 2012.

This will all, as usual, be preceded by the Down Under Classic, which is not officially part of the Tour Down Under but which is part of the official UCI criterium calendar which thus allows the riders of the UCI ProTeams to participate.

In this article you'll find all information about the race route of the Tour Down Under 2012 including most importantly ...